Advent of Electronic Digital Computing

The author touches on the nebulous beginnings of his interest in computing, and how, when specific problems arose, the computers of the day were used and analyzed. The first choice he made was between analog and digital computers. After study, digital computers seemed better for most purposes, but no computer in existence met his requirements. Thus he was led to a more exact study of the logic of digital computing: medium for the computer structure, base of the numbers for the computer, slow and fast memory, computing by logic and not by enumeration, data in and data out, carry-over, etc. A prototype and an ABC were constructed. Several basic concepts developed in that day are in use in modern computers. The subsequent litigations and controversies are discussed in some detail.